With a $1.35billion prize on the line, the Mega Millions jackpot drawing tonight could see Friday the 13th become the luckiest day of them all.
Many people have pocketed smaller prizes in the lottery game, but no one has matched all six numbers to scoop the grand prize since October 14.
After 25 straight drawings without a winner, the rollover prize pot is now the fourth-largest in U.S. history. And if no one wins Friday night, the jackpot will inch closer to the record $2.04 billion Powerball prize won last November in California.
However, the amount winners will take home could vary by as much as $147million depending on where you live and bought the ticket.
Residents of eight lucky states – California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming – will get the full payout as they do not have to pay a penny in tax on their winnings.
In contrast, New York charges a whopping 10.9 percent in addition to the 24 percent federal tax rate – the most of all 50 states. New Jersey and Washington DC (10.75 percent), Oregon (9.9 percent) and Minnesota (9.8 percent) also have above average state taxes on winnings.
With a $1.35billion prize on the line, the Mega Millions jackpot drawing tonight could see Friday the 13th become the luckiest day of them all
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
There are seven states – North Dakota, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware – where lottery winners are allowed to remain anonymous.
California on the other hand does not permit lottery winners to benefit from anonymity, with winners compelled by law to publicly reveal their name and location, according to Mission Legal Center.
The long stretch without a Mega Millions jackpot winner is down to the game’s steep odds of 1 in 302.6 million.
The $1.35 billion prize is for a winner who chooses an annuity with annual payments over 29 years. Winners almost always take the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing would be an estimated $707.9 million.
A customer at the Cranberry Super Mini Mart in Cranberry, Pa., shows her Mega Millions ticket on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Experts say it is worth remembering that you can still win big prizes even if all of your numbers don’t match.
Lottery officials throughout the country warn that every year players miss out on millions of dollars in prizes they either don’t realize they have won or decline to cash in, figuring the trouble isn’t worth a small payoff.
People nearly always show up for the biggest prizes, but million-dollar payoffs have been waiting for months to be claimed in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Washington state.
And more than two months after someone in California won a record $2.04 billion Powerball ticket, no winner has been named, though that person still has until November to come forward.
A $1.6 million Powerball ticket sold in Sacramento, California, also expired last May. And that same month, Harris said a $1 million Powerball ticket sold in Michigan expired.
Carolyn Becker, a deputy director of the California Lottery, said: ‘Millions of dollars in California Lottery prize money go unclaimed each year – something I don´t think a lot of people realize.’
‘I suspect most of those prizes are for people who never knew they´d won. Maybe they forgot to check their ticket, or misplaced it, and never saw the outcome of the draw,’ she added.
The awnings of a store advertise the sale of lottery tickets, including Mega Millions, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in New York. The Mega Millions prize has grown again to an estimated $1.35 billion after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Mega Millions lottery slips are displayed, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in New York. The Mega Millions prize has grown again to an estimated $1.35 billion after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Sometimes the delay in cashing in a big winning ticket is strategic, as players opt to delay coming forward until the next year for tax reasons, said Jake Harris, the player relations manager for the Michigan Lottery.
If a winner of a Powerball or Mega Millions grand prize doesn’t come forward, the money is returned to the state lotteries in proportion to their sales. For smaller prizes of these games or for state lottery games, there are different rules for unclaimed prize winnings.
In both California and Michigan, the money goes to a school aid fund, as do other lottery profits. Other states roll the money into future prizes, divert it to the general state budget or use if for different specific uses.
In fiscal year 2021 in Michigan, the last year when data was available, about $78 million, or 1.6 percent of sales, went unclaimed, Harris said.
That includes winnings from scratch games as well as the draw games, like Mega Millions and Powerball. Michigan still has a couple of $1 million tickets sold in October that haven’t been turned in.
Lottery officials also advise winners of the giant jackpots like the huge payout in California last November to work with financial planners and other advisers before cashing in their winning ticket – as long as they sign their winning ticket and keep it secure.
